Top air force official: No one warns enemy to evacuate before attacking

IDF rejects criticism of attacks in Lebanon as illegal.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 17:32 Updated: SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 17:42

IDF carries out strikes on southern Lebanon, 23 Sept 2024 (photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X)

A senior IDF air force official on Tuesday rejected criticism of Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon as illegal, saying that no other country warns the enemy where it is attacking hours before.

Prior to its massive attacks on Lebanon on Monday, the IDF issued multiple rounds of location-specific warnings to all persons to evacuate those areas.

The senior IDF official said that such warnings go completely against the central military principle of trying to take the enemy by surprise.

Criticism has focused on the idea that the IDF has attacked large numbers of civilian structures in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, leading already to the deaths of over 550 Lebanese citizens.

However, multiple senior IDF officials have said that the vast majority of those killed are Hezbollah members.

An ambulance vehicle drives as hundreds of members of Hezbollah were seriously wounded, in Sidon, Lebanon September 17, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/AZIZ TAHER)

They have said this is because the locations where the IDF has attacked all have Hezbollah rockets and other weapons inside.

Hezbollah hides weapons 

Part of the problem has been that the IDF has said, and presented a number of videos as evidence, that Hezbollah has hidden almost all of its weapons in civilian areas systematically throughout Lebanon.

This has meant that Hezbollah operatives remained near these locations, waiting for orders to fire the rockets at Israeli civilians, even as civilians evacuated.

The senior air force official added that aircraft, drones, and other surveillance have meant that the air force could hold off attacking in real-time situations where civilians had not yet evacuated.   

Further, he said that the air force has operational tactics to convince civilians to leave once attacks are about to start, who did not leave after earlier warnings.

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Other techniques

In past military operations, the IDF has fired non-explosive missiles at such locations to make loud noises on the rooftops of areas it plans to attack but where civilians have failed to evacuate despite prior warnings.

This technique is called “roof-knocking.” There are also other operational ways the IDF could fire various warning shots or create loud sounds nearby to convince civilians to evacuate where they initially refuse to do so.

The senior air force official did not have set statistics for how many of the estimated 550 killed Lebanese were Hezbollah fighters versus civilians, but he argued that intelligence anecdotally has shown most to be Hezbollah and that the world should show greater appreciation for the IDF going against its own military “interest” by warnings Hezbollah where it is about to attack.

Moreover, the official said that the air force could have carried out its attacks much faster and killed many more Hezbollah operatives if it had not issued the warning.